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Taru Bahl

Who is a leader? When is he likely to and be allowed to emerge from the shadows? Is the leadership position gender neutral? These are just some of the questions that many, including top managers, would like answered. An attempt...

Potent leadership is a matter of being aware of what is happening in the group and acting accordingly. Specific actions are less important than the leader's clarity or consciousness. That is why there are no exercises or formulae to ensure successful leadership. Leaders who lose touch with what is happening cannot act spontaneously so they try to do what they think is right. If that fails, they often try coercion. But the wise leader who loses the sense of immediacy becomes quiet and lets all effort go until a sense of clarity and consciousness returns.

The Tao of leadership

Most would-be leaders take their job very seriously. Not only are their academic credentials in place, but also their work profile is mapped with a killer instinct, as they go about acquiring myriad skills in a chameleon-like changing workplace. New icons are identified, management practices learnt and, most importantly, a new attitude donned as the fresh brat pack of India Inc slides into the driver's seat.

An informal survey across a cross section of the Indian business community reveals the presence of an emerging leader who in his quest for success, power, authority and leadership is somewhere becoming obsessed with at least one aspect of managerial effectiveness that he is convinced would work best for him.

While not meaning to cause offence to any one particular individual or business group, listed below are five categories which most wannabe leaders have tried fitting into. Some have done it smoothly, others are yet to iron out the creases. However, the one universal feature present in all their styles is that the efforts they are making are visible and felt.

While they theoretically may want to adhere to the credo that they hope will define them and turn into their very own USP, in real practical terms not all have been able to endorse it in toto. The lines demarcating fact and fiction, myth and reality get blurred and in the end we are left with a leadership style that confuses, contradicts and creates both stressful and conflicting situations at the workplace.

Myth of the successful leader

The media has announced the arrival of the holistic CEO. He is more rounded and evolved, scoring higher on the EQ and SQ (Emotional and Spiritual) ratings. He has interests and time for pursuits such as adventurous holidays, community causes, family gatherings and staff welfare.

He has moved with the times. Proof being the latest survey carried by a business paper which found that top Indian honchos held leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, artists, playwrights and painters as their role models instead of the more predictable Jack Welchs or Henry Fords of the corporate world. Yet, ironically how many CEOs are really this evolved?

As one Vice-President in the running for the CEO's position put it candidly, "This picture-perfect CEO is more of a myth. Fuelling this impossible to achieve role model, we are stuffed with interviews, sound bytes and quotes in business papers and television forcing us to conform to an image, build an acceptable profile and be seen as people who are more accessible, real and empathetic. This when the demands of our business provoke us to be aggressive, tough and downright mean at times. Where is the time to cultivate pursuits like golf and high profile charity dos even if they are touted as the best place to network or be seen as PRPs (page three people or socialites)? Either one focuses on being a playboy or one gets down to serious business."

If that be so, then how do these Hercules of the corporate world keep their businesses from collapsing, especially since they take their jobs so seriously? Is it because deep down they have not been able to completely shrug off the conditioning of their previous avtaars? The workaholic image to them is more in line with what they want to be than what Tao and his oriental wisdom suggests via the `Completely Evolved Individual' model.

Anurag Mathur, a management graduate reasons by saying, "There is such sweet pleasure in being over worked, in believing that you are the pivot around which the company functions. You can see that all your sacrifices are not going to go to naught. There are always people who take up for you, making excuses and offering explanations for your business.

Many mother and lecture you on how important it is to slow down, create the right yin and yang balance and strive for harmony and inner peace. They worry for you, appreciate your commitment and know that without you they could not have come this far. And this high is what any leader actually thrives upon — to know he has made a difference and that he matters."

Given this realty picture, how you wish you could trash the myth of the holistic leader who didn't have to look calm all the time and whose physical environment didn't have to conform to Vaastu and Feng Shui, which have as their basis the declutter and decongest philosophy. For, there is so much comfort to be drawn from a desk that is messy with papers strewn across in wild disarray, creating the impression that every important business deal is transacted by our guy on the fast-track, who is naturally too busy for anything but work.

The evolved individual with mythical proportions is supposed to be completely in control. He is not supposed to fly into a temper, get provoked, abusive or hyper.

Imagine the chief of an advertising agency, working on a top-of-the-league client's first campaign and is magically cool as a cucumber. The present generation of fast-track leaders are management graduates who work like maniacs, chase ambitious targets, beat the competition in the most innovative ways and exhibit high energy levels.

The overall picture counts. Emitting smoke like an engine, as they puff at their cigarettes, leaving half-a-dozen coffee cups strewn around the place and letting off steam when nervous energy gets difficult to hold onto somewhere adds up to the high profile achiever image they so preciously want to cultivate.

Being a nice, evolved guy then is not all that important. Besides an evening game of golf at the cost of skipping the networking dinner at an embassy or making the time to attend the children's annual function by giving an important business meeting with prospective clients a miss, is something that might make a pretty picture but not one which will help them leave their footprints in the sand of time.

Myth of the cost cutter

This is the guy everyone loves to hate. He is the one who has taken upon himself the onerous and thankless job of straightening out the company's finances. While he can do precious little to bring in more business orders and/or cash-rich clients, he can surely help employees get more responsible. Introducing harmless salary cuts and slashing annual bonuses seems a small price to pay to keep jobs intact. This is the silent message though some perceive it as a veiled threat. They see the cost cutter as a wolf in sheep's clothing, waiting for him to strike where it hurts most. Overnight `systems' are put in place. Reams of procedural forms are created for clearances for procuring an extra note pad, taxi voucher, dinner after 10 p.m. and even photocopying. During staff meetings impressive figures are demonstrated on fancy looking pie charts in power point presentations, showcasing meticulous handiwork. Seemingly, these efforts have yielded X sums of money, by just some creative thinking and pulling up of socks.

When an international news channel last year did away with cookies, brownies and munchies with their daily cuppa coffee, the staff were unhappy about the cost cuts. They felt it wasn't fair to eliminate what was their food for thought when the big bosses were continuing to spend fancy sums on their business lunches and overseas travel. But they actually had to eat humble pie when the cost cutter showed them exactly how much money they would be saving at the end of the financial year. It could actually ensure the top management's salaries for a full year! Another Six Sigma company chief undertook the project of scrutinising mobile phone bills of his middle and senior management staff in an attempt to impress the venture capitalists and board of directors with the huge amount that would be saved as a result. What however did happen was that his project was declared as `failed' and he was transferred to back of beyond, forcing him to put in his papers.

Myth of the gender-neutral head

This is the guy Germaine Greer and Naomi Wolf would love to have as their latest subjects of study. At long last the world was waking up to femininity in its more refined form. Men had finally begun to realise that it made enormous political and economic sense to keep women in good humour. Give them plum positions, empower them, treat them as buddies, indulge in back slapping and naughty joke sharing, let them open doors for themselves and pick up the restaurant tab. No special concessions to them on account of their gender and certainly no big daddy patronising approach.

The moment you make a sexist remark or crack a bawdy joke she is going to haul you up, make a scathing remark and make you feel downright foolish. It is then out of fear that stems this gender-neutral stance where you treat your female colleagues just like you would your other male staff members. You tutor yourself to ignore the man - woman angle as you cultivate an outwardly neutral demeanour. But deep down, are you really gender neutral?

According to women, most on the surface GN guys are actually very abusive of their top female colleagues. They not only have very low opinions of them but also indulge in loose talk, colourful enough to put the caricatured gossipy housewife in the shade. Men may be rubbing shoulders with women, putting on a convincing pal act too, but deep down they hate it, conjuring visions of putting the `fairer sex' on the mat. They rarely give her credit for being where she is, convinced she has compromised or used connections to convert her dreams and aspirations into reality without having the talent, experience or the merit to back that.

Myth of the consultant in Messiah's clothing

They are the knights in shining armour. They are breezily introduced to all the heads of department with the directive, `Share information. Co-operate. Incorporate recommendations.' The grapevine works overtime, exaggerating their role and scope of operations. The universally cynical view is, `how can they know what is right for us? We know our ship is sinking, but who are they to pin point exactly what is wrong and help us weed out the deadwood, when we have been unable to set things right? Adding insult to injury is to see our bosses fall backwards lapping up each suggestion and then paying them ridiculous fees for telling us what we already know. High profile senior staff meetings are convened at fancy locations with the objective of breaking down channels of communication and gradually letting the consultants share their findings and recommendations. By this time rumours are flying thick and fast at the middle-management level. Insecurity soars as people begin to see through the boss's game plan. The general perception is that those harsh decisions that the company heads could not take for fear of backlash and non-cooperation are going to now be taken by specially appointed consultants. At the end of the day, controls are going to go back into the hands of the blue eyed boys, performance is not going to get rewarded and notions of stemming the rot will remain just that notions and the consultants will walk quietly away, with their fees in their pocket.

Myth of the Retiring CEO

Take the case of Vaibhav Gupta (name withheld on request), a CEO in the waiting for the last 12 years. His boss's succession plan was announced when he was close to the officially retiring age. This kept getting extended and today when he has finally decided to take a back seat by casting himself in an unofficial advisorial role, he continues to intervene. Although outwardly he has the debonair magnanimous modern leader of the world tag around his collar, deep down he remains as intoxicated by power than he ever was. Only now he is busy playing a dual game. Retirement is some sort of a dreaded malady which even if the average chief does prepare himself for can do a volte face when the time comes to relinquish charge. The second line is kept dangling on tenterhooks. They get older and their options get more and more limited as they find themselves in the wait and watch mode. Without a clear succession plan the work place resembles the palaces of yore where intrigues reigned supreme.

Coming back to Tao, he says, "Natural events are potent because they act in accordance with how things work. They simply are. The wise leader knows better than to be neurotic and self-centred. Potency comes from knowing what is happening and acting accordingly. Paradoxically, freedom comes from obedience to the natural order. Since all creation is a whole, separateness is an illusion. Like it or not, we are all team players. Power comes through co-operation, independence through service and a greater self through selflessness."

So, till such time that there is any dichotomy in the leader's approach, attitude or behaviour there is bound to be resistance and conflict. Whatever he decides to be, every pore of his being must exude that with confidence, clarity and conviction. Applying theoretical principles to practical life or vice versa will yield at best partial results. Besides the connection between the leader and the team will not be complete, and the most profound fundas will remain only myths or half-truths.

Illustration: V.M. Raja

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